27 held in crackdown on ultras in Pak
Multan, August 14
The Pakistani police said today that it had arrested 27 militants, including a leader of a banned sectarian group, in a crackdown on Muslim ultras blamed for religious violence.
A senior police officer said the arrests had been made in various Punjab provinces since Sunday following attacks on a church school near Murree and a Christian missionary hospital in
Taxila.

71 parties
allowed to contest Pak electionIslamabad, August 14Seventyone Pakistani parties have formally thrown their hats into the election ring, with the Election Commission declaring them eligible to contest the October 10 poll.
The commission yesterday rejected the documents of 58 other parties that sought to contest for not being in conformity with the law.

An aerial view shows Prague's district of Holesovice with a flooded highway junction on
Wednesday. The Czech capital faces the worst flood in the city's history.
— Reuters

South Korea's Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun (L) and North Korean delegation leader Kim Ryong-song walk hand
in hand as they bid farewell in Seoul
on Wednesday. North and South Korea announced on Wednesday they would hold military talks as soon as possible to help restart a project to build a railway through their fortified frontier.
— Reuters

Violation of human rightsJakarta, August 14An Indonesian court today sentenced a former East Timor Governor to three years in jail over violence linked to the territory’s 1999 independence vote, a verdict rights groups said came only to appease the international community.

Marwan Barghouthi, 43, general secretary of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah
Movement in the West Bank, shouts in Tel Aviv's city court on
Wednesday. Israel began its first civilian trial of a leader of the Palestinian uprising on Wednesday,
slapping murder charges on firebrand Marwan Barghouthi who defiantly vowed in Hebrew: "The Intifada will win".—
Reuters photo

UK deports Afghan familyLondon, August 14Britain sent a young Afghan family back to Germany today in an asylum case which has become a symbol of Britain’s tougher line on immigration and sparked anger among human rights activists.

‘Asian
brown cloud’ alarms UNWashington, August 14A UN report has signalled alarm over the state of the earth’s natural resources, ahead of this month’s UN-sponsored sustainable development summit in Johannesburg.

A dead koala lies on the side of a road after a hit-and-run accident in Brisbane in the Australian state of Queensland in this August 8, 2002, photo. A local city government paints a fluorescent red stripe on dead koalas and leaves them by the road for
24 hours in a campaign to prevent further koala hit and runs. Around 150 koalas are killed each year on the roads south of Brisbane, a koala breeding ground. Sixteen were killed in July, four weeks into a three-month trial into the "Stephen King-style" shock tactic to make motorists aware of
koala crossings.
— Reuters

File photo taken over 30 years ago shows the giant sable of Angola. There have been no confirmed sightings of the antelope for 20 years. Scientists on
Wednesday launched an expedition from South Africa to search for the animals and see if any have survived Angola's decades-long civil war. A ceasefire between the government and UNITA rebels signed in April has raised prospects for a lasting peace in the southwest African country and brought new hope for its once
magnificent herds of wildlife which were decimated by the conflict.
— Reuters

Video

China,
eager to promote tourism in Tibet, has been advertising the
devoutly Buddhist region as a must-see, despite destroying
many ancient buildings around one of the oldest
pilgrimage sites in Lhasa.(28k,
56k)

Multan, August 14
The Pakistani police said today that it had arrested 27 militants, including a leader of a banned sectarian group, in a crackdown on Muslim ultras blamed for religious violence.

A senior police officer said the arrests had been made in various Punjab provinces since Sunday following attacks on a church school near Murree and a Christian missionary hospital in Taxila. Khadim Hussain Dhalu, secretary-general of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, was arrested in Jhang district on Tuesday night. Reutrs, the officer said.

He said Dhalu (47) had been evading arrest since his group was banned by President Pervez Musharraf in January. “He was underground since then and we had been looking for him,” he said.

The head of the group, Maulana Azam Tariq, has been in detention since the ban was imposed.

The police accuses the Sunni group of involvement in the killing of several minority Shia leaders.

Separate raids by police in Multan late last night resulted in the arrest of six more militants from two banned extremist groups — four from the SSP and two from the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group, police said.

Four more people were arrested in Kot Addu, some 160 km away, on suspicion of involvement in a grenade attack on the Christian hospital in Taxila last Friday, which killed four nurses and an attacker.

Police reported 15 other arrests yesterday of militants belonging to the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad group, in connection with the hospital attack.

Another man, arrested with five grenades, belonged to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and was suspected of planning future attacks on Christian targets in Punjab, they said.
Reuters

Islamabad, August 14
Seventyone Pakistani parties have formally thrown their hats into the election ring, with the Election Commission declaring them eligible to contest the October 10 poll.

The commission yesterday rejected the documents of 58 other parties that sought to contest for not being in conformity with the law.

The documents of the newly formed Pakistan Muslim League (PML) faction headed by Ejazul Haq, son of the late military ruler Zia-ul Haq, were among those declared ineligible.

The commission will allot symbols to the eligible parties in the next couple of days. The decision was taken at a meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Election Commissioner Irshad Hasan Khan yesterday.

Under the Political Parties Order 2002, all parties were required to hold internal elections by August 5, with August 12 being the last date for them to submit documents.

While all political parties are expected to get the same symbols they had in the 1997 elections, the PPPP and PPP-Sherpao are both vying for the “arrow”.

Besides the PML (Ziaul Haq Shaheed), the parties that have been disqualified are the Tehrik-e-Istaqlal, PML-Qayyum, PML-Nazriati, Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith, Muttahida Deeni Mahaz and the Mazdoor Kisan Party.

The rejection of the papers of the PML (Zia-ul Haq) came as a big shock to the supporters of Mr Ejazul Haq who had parted ways with the PML-QA on August 3.

Mr Haq has said he will move higher court against the decision of the commission that says Mr Haq, according to its records, is a member of the PML-QA.

Mr Haq had formed his own group after losing the election for the PML-QA president slot against Mian Azhar. He had not resigned from the office of PML-QA senior vice-president before forming his group.
IANS

Former East Timor Governor Abilio Soares listens as the judge presents his sentence during trial in Jakarta
on Wednesday. — Reuters

Jakarta, August 14
An Indonesian court today sentenced a former East Timor Governor to three years in jail over violence linked to the territory’s 1999 independence vote, a verdict rights groups said came only to appease the international community.

The family of Abilio Soares wept as the judge read out the guilty verdict before a packed court room and handed down the sentence for the charge of crimes against humanity.

Prosecutors had demanded a 10-and-a-half-year jail term for Soares and said they would appeal the verdict because the charge carried a minimum sentence of 10 years. Soares, an East Timorese, faced a maximum penalty of death.

“We hereby declare the defendant, Abilio Osorio Soares, has been proven legally guilty of the first and second charges of gross rights violations,” presiding judge Emmy Marni Mustafa told the court. “The fact that there were attacks in (several townships in East Timor) proves that the defendant could not manage his subordinates effectively,” she said. Lawyers for Soares said they would also appeal.

It was the court’s first verdict in a string of historic cases over the fury of violence surrounding East Timor’s overwhelming vote to break from 24 years of Indonesian rule.

More verdicts are expected on Thursday over the case of East Timor’s former police chief and another involving four mid-ranking soldiers and a policeman.

Swarmed by reporters, Soares later defended his role as Governor of the territory, saying he was unable to control the gangs of machete-wielding militiamen who went on a murderous rampage before and after the August 30 ballot. “I have become a scapegoat. Clearly I am a victim here,” Soares said outside the courtroom.

Human rights groups have said they did not expect hefty sentences for any of the 18 accused but prosecutors complained that the verdict for Soares was far too lenient.

Indonesia is under intense pressure from the international community to adequately punish those responsible for the bloodshed and destruction in which the United Nations estimates more than 1,000 people were killed.

Among the things at stake for Indonesia are military ties with the USA, severed in the wake of the violence. The USA recently gave Indonesia a $50 million package to bolster its military and police forces.
Reuters

London, August 14
Britain sent a young Afghan family back to Germany today in an asylum case which has become a symbol of Britain’s tougher line on immigration and sparked anger among human rights activists.

Home Office Minister Beverly Hughes said in a statement that although the case was “very difficult”, the family, who fled Afghanistan’s former Taliban regime, could not stay in Britain.

Farid Ahmadi and his wife captured British headlines when they were seized by police in a raid on a mosque in the West Midlands where they had fled for sanctuary earlier this month.

Human rights groups were then horrified when a judge ruled last Saturday that the Ahmadi children, who had been staying with family friends in Britain, should be held with their parents at a detention centre until the family was deported.

The Ahmadis applied for asylum in Germany but then travelled on to Britain, where they have been refused asylum.
Reuters

Washington, August 14
A UN report has signalled alarm over the state of the earth’s natural resources, ahead of this month’s UN-sponsored sustainable development summit in Johannesburg.

The report said sea levels rose and forests were destroyed at unprecedented rates during the last decade. It noted that more than 40 per cent of the world’s population — two billion people — now face water shortages.

And it predicted that with the global population expected to increase from six billion to eight billion people over the next 25 years, another burden would be added to environmental problems.

According to UN Under Secretary General Nitin Desai, the most important message in the report was that the world’s environmental crises are interrelated.

As an example, he cited the “Asian brown cloud” — a “poisonous cocktail” of particulate matter, chemicals and various aerosols currently hanging over a vast area of South East-Asia.

“Here you have a situation that arises because of the unsustainable way energy is used in this region, which is leading to these problems that have an impact on agriculture, water, and on health.

Mr Desai, who will lead the Earth summit, said governments must form specific partnerships to reduce threats in five areas — water, energy, agriculture, bio-diversity and health.

More than 100 world leaders are expected for the summit, from August 26 to September 4.

With more than three million people dying every year from the effects of air pollution, and more than two million dying from contaminated water, Mr Desai said full global participation was essential.
IANS

PAKISTAN BRIEFS

PERVEZ’S I-DAY GREETINGS TO KALAM,
PM
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has greeted his Indian counterpart A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on the eve of India’s Independence Day. In his message to Dr Kalam, General Musharraf said: “Excellency, on behalf of the government and people of Pakistan and my own behalf, I have the pleasure to convey to you and the people of India our warm greetings on the occasion of Independence Day of the Republic of India”. An identical message has been sent to Mr Vajpayee.
PTI

2 PAKISTANIS HELD FOR FILMING AT ARMY BASE
ATHENS: Two Pakistanis living in Greece were arrested while filming installations at a military base southwest of Athens, the police said on Wednesday. One of the men worked at the Eleusis base, while the other was employed elsewhere in the region. The police confiscated a video-camera with a cassette.
AFP